Heikki Sarmanto

Led by the startling voice of Anni Elif Egecioglu, Elifantree paints from an idiosyncratic palette, spattered with jazz and electronics. This Helsinki trio celebrates its 10th anniversary with new collaborations and a forthcoming album.

It can take a while before you realise that Heikki Sarmanto actually is playing an old standard song. That’s why it is both an under- and overstatement to simply say that Sarmanto plays standards on his solo piano twofer CD.

2015 has been a milestone year for the 40-year-old UMO Jazz Orchestra. We invited three key figures to look back on the history of the internationally acclaimed big band.

Jazz composer and musician Heikki Sarmanto was one of his generation’s foremost figures in the 1960s, when Finnish jazz moved away from the traditional towards a more original sound. Another Finnish jazz revolutionary who has been unconcerned about music genres is Henrik Otto Donner, although the two men’s approaches have differed.

The earthy tones of Pepa Päivinen’s saxophone are a cornerstone of Finnish jazz. To date [2003], the man has released three albums as a leader and made himself a name through various projects of differing sizes. He has performed for twenty years in the ranks of the UMO Jazz Orchestra and worked along the way with bandleaders like Jukka Tolonen, Edward Vesala and Anthony Braxton.